Partnership
by Angevon
Summary: Souji confesses and Yosuke rejects him. Rise and Chie act as support.


[AN: De-anon from the kink meme. Prompt was: "Souji is convinced he's read Yosuke right and confesses...only for Yosuke to reject him, because he honestly doesn't have those feelings for him. I'd like to see Yosuke and Souji's relationship strained and then repaired after that awkward moment where Souji came out to his best friend, confessed and then got rejected, with the rest of the IT jumping in to comfort Souji and Yosuke"

I really couldn't think of a title. And this hasn't been beta read, so, uh, I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

Obviously this is not part of my ongoing SoujiXYosuke series!]

* * *

Yosuke shoved Souji away. "Wh-what the hell, man!?" He spat on the ground and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, gagged a bit, and then glared at Souji, who looked both hurt and shocked, like a dog being scolded for making a mess.

When Souji had told Yosuke after lunch that he had something important to tell him this afternoon, this was the last thing Yosuke had expected.

That Souji would take his hand, pull him closer, and... and... _kiss_ him...

"Souji... Dude, I am not like that!" Yosuke shouted indignantly. His hands were balled into fists. "What the hell—"

"I... I know..." Souji mumbled in apology, glancing away. But it was obvious from the shame on his face that he either hadn't known, or he'd been hoping that Yosuke would change his mind. "I'm... I'm sorry... I..."

"Souji... Oh my God..."

"I'm sorry... I don't know what I was thinking..." Souji was avoiding his eyes and fiddling with one of his jacket's buttons. He was also totally lying.

"I... think I'd better go," Yosuke informed him. He slunk away as fast as he could.

* * *

The Investigation Team was supposed to meet up at the Food Court for a day of training in the TV World, but Yosuke didn't show up.

"He said he had work today," Chie informed the group. "Though I didn't see him in the store at all..."

"He's not working!" Teddie said. "I'd know, because I'm not working. We always work together! He always tells me I'll em_bear_ass the store if he's not there to watch me..."

"That's strange," Chie mused. "Want me to call him, Souji-kun?"

Souji traced the tabletop's grain with the fingers of his right hand. "No, no, that's fine," he murmured softly. "We'll... We'll be fine without him."

Somehow, he didn't sound very convinced.

* * *

"Senpai... Are you all right?" Rise stopped Souji while they were leaving the TV World. Because she watched everyone through Himiko's eyes, she could tell something had been bothering Souji during their entire training session. But honestly, she hadn't needed her Persona to see that; the others were aware that something was wrong, too, but they respected their leader's privacy enough not to question him about it—or perhaps they were too afraid of what it could mean. Rise had no such fear. "It's about Yosuke, isn't it?"

The silver-haired boy opened his mouth to say something, then thought better of it. He licked his dry lips and finally replied with a begrudging, "Yeah."

Rise laid a hand on his arm. "Do you... want to talk about it?"

He avoided her eyes. She was sure he'd decline, but to her surprise, he nodded curtly.

They left Junes together and Rise took him to her family's tofu shop. It wasn't far, and they'd have privacy there. She led him to the back room, away from customers, where she cheerfully told him that 'the magic happened.' He smiled for a moment at her, but she knew it was only to humor her.

In his mood, small talk was pointless, so she said, "Soooo... What happened with Yosuke?"

Souji worked his jaw a bit before answering. "I... I did something really stupid, and now he's avoiding me."

Rise nodded. She wasn't in his class, but Chie had told her as much. And, well, Yosuke hadn't come to the TV World today. "Well, all you gotta do is apologize, you know? Give him time to cool off a little, and then—"

"I don't think that's going to work."

She blinked at him. "Senpai?" He never interrupted like that. And she had never heard him sound so... defeated.

"I don't think he'll even want to be friends with me any more." He was sitting slouched forward in the folding chair, eyes fixated on the floor. He looked thoroughly miserable and Rise hated it.

"Senpai, Yosuke _adores_ you," she assured him. "He calls you 'partner' and everything. There's no way he'd give up that friendship, no matter what you did." She tried patting his arm to cheer him up.

Her senpai looked up at her, and he looked like he'd swallowed a case of Shiroku's bitter Dokudami tea. "I thought he adored me, too... I thought he felt the same, so I... I thought the moment was right, but..."

'Felt... the same...?' Rise's brow furrowed. "Wait... What exactly did you do?"

He told her. And he told her about Yosuke's flight.

"Oh, Senpai... I'm so sorry..." She put her arms around him as he began to cry.

"What if... What if..." Souji choked out between sobs. "What if he never calls me 'partner' again?"

* * *

At lunch the following day, Yosuke put on his headphones and dropped his head down on his desk in classroom 2-2, burying his face in his arms. He wasn't hungry in the least.

Not long later someone was tugging at his headphones. He swatted them away irritably without raising his head, but they poked his back until he had no choice but to get up and glare at them.

It was Chie. "Yosuke, what's going on?"

"Nothing," he muttered. He tried to put his head back down, but she lifted it back up by pulling his hair with a surprising amount of force.

"What's going on with you and Souji-kun?" she asked, letting him go now that she had his attention.

Gah... So she'd noticed. Fortunately Souji wasn't in the classroom; he'd taken Yukiko to the roof for lunch. Yosuke massaged his scalp where she had pulled him. "Nothing," he claimed. She didn't look convinced, so he added, "Look, it's between him and me," with a shrug.

"We could have used you in the TV World yesterday," she chided in an undertone so the other students wouldn't hear.

Yosuke had the decency to look guilty. "Yeah... I'm sorry about that..."

"Why'd you skip? You never skip. Are you avoiding Souji-kun? You won't even look at him in class, and that's pretty difficult to pull off when he sits in front of you. And he's been acting kind of strange, too..."

Yosuke lowered his eyes and didn't comment.

"What did you do, Yosuke?" she demanded.

"What did I do?" Yosuke shouted back. "Why're you assuming it's me? It's his damn fault for trying to..." He cut himself off, realizing he was surrounded by other students eating lunch in the classroom.

Chie's eyes were wide. "For what, Yosuke?"

Yosuke looked away. "I'll... tell you after class..." he muttered miserably.

* * *

Yosuke didn't say a word during the entire walk with Chie down to the pavilion on the flood plains. He didn't want anyone at school hearing this, hell, half of him didn't even want to tell Chie, but the other half needed him to tell someone... And Chie was his best friend next to Souji...

Yosuke sat at the table with a heavy sigh. Chie eyed him with obvious concern.

"Look," he began before she could suggest that a steak might cheer him up. "Souji, he..." He scowled and fumbled with his headphones cord. This was harder to explain than he'd imagined.

"Did he break your bike or something?" Chie guessed.

"He tried to kiss me, okay!? God dammit," he growled.

Chie covered her mouth in shock. "But you're...!"

"_Yes,_" he said emphatically.

"But he knows that... Are you sure that's what happened?"

"Yes, Chie, I'm sure. I don't think you can accidentally kiss a guy."

Chie stared at the table for several long moments, speechless.

"Dammit," said Yosuke. "He was my best friend..."

"'Was'?" Chie gasped. "You're going to stop being his friend over this? Come on, you're not that shallow!"

Yosuke slammed his palm down on the table. "How the hell am I supposed to salvage this? He's... He's probably been crushing on me for months," he finished lamely.

"Y-yeah," Chie admitted. "A lot of things... kind of make sense now..." Those subtle glances Souji always gave him, and the way Souji always hung onto his every word, even when he was talking about nothing important—like pretty much most of the time. And the frequency in which Souji cooked him lunch over his other friends... Yeah, it made a terrible amount of sense.

Yosuke silently agreed, and wished he'd seen it sooner. "I don't know if he'll even want to be friends now," he mumbled. "Being rejected... He's got to be hurting..."

"I think... I think you're going to have to talk to him," Chie told him, not unkindly.

"Yeah..."

* * *

When Chie left, Yosuke stared at his cell phone. He didn't want to talk about this over the phone. He also didn't want to confront Souji at school... So he sent Souji a text message to come here on his own.

He worried that Souji would ignore him after what happened, but dammit he knew the guy better than that. Within seconds he received a reply text that read, "On my way."

Yosuke's stomach migrated to somewhere under the bench during the time it took for Souji to get there. He had no idea what he was going to say. At all. What _could_ he say to salvage this?

He saw the silver-haired youth approach from quite a distance. Did Souji look like he was walking with reluctance? It was hard to tell. Yosuke's stomach twisted further the closer the boy reached, and Yosuke swallowed several times to try and steel himself for what was to come.

"Yosuke?" Souji whispered upon arrival. He seemed hesitant to take a seat, hovering by the pavilion's table.

"Sit down," Yosuke told him irritably.

Souji sat across from him, adjusting his jacket as he did so. He didn't say anything, apparently also at a loss for words.

"Souji, umm..." Yosuke began.

Souji watched him, his face expressionless. Yosuke wondered how he managed to mask himself so well, sometimes.

"Souji, umm... I know... you like me, but... obviously I don't feel the same way. Ah..."

Souji responded with a short little nod.

Yosuke continued. "I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong signals or something somewhere... but I really don't feel that way."

The silver-haired boy sighed. "I'm sorry, Yosuke. I couldn't help it."

Yosuke swallowed the lump in his throat. "No, it's all right. I'm glad it's out there. It could have been worse, you know. I mean, I still want to be friends."

Souji's face softened. "You do...?"

Yosuke nodded. "Of course. I mean, it's a little weird knowing that you like me," – _that_ was an understatement – "but... I mean, if you can get over it... I don't see why we can't be friends."

"I..." Souji swallowed. "I'd like that."

Yosuke held out his hand. Souji stared at it for a minute, then held his own out. Yosuke took his hand and shook it heartily. "Yeah. I think... we'll always be friends, partner."

Souji smiled shyly at him, and Yosuke grinned back. Things between them wouldn't be the same as before, but they could move forward.


End file.
